174. James Baldwin

Snarky Opener (0:00)

James Baldwin was tackling race, sexuality, and identity in the 1950s. So why is America still so shocked by the concept of equality?

Episode Introduction (0:28)

Hello, my LGBTQuties, and welcome back to another episode of A Jaded Gay. I'm Rob Loveless, and today I am a non-jaded gay because I've recently been in the DIY home improvement mindset.

So, I've been doing a few projects. A couple weeks ago, I swapped out all the door handles for my inside doors. Really nice. Just kind of a more, like, modern, sleek look.

And then I actually just replaced my closet doors in my bedroom. The ones I had were kind of those old white folding ones, which weren't bad, except I live in a row home, so my bedroom is kind of tight.

And the bedroom door is right next to the closet door, so I couldn't have the closet open if I had my bedroom door open. So, it was just a pain. So, I went online and found these closet doors.

They were supposed to be easy installation. So, I got two sets, because I actually have two closets in my bedroom.

One that I keep my clothes in, and then a smaller closet by my bed that I just use for, like, small storage stuff. But I got both sets.

I actually took down the old doors and the track, installed the new track, and then I built the doors and put them in.

The only downside is that they're a little too long for my closets because whoever owned my house beforehand made some repairs that weren't necessarily fully correct.

So, my closets are not the traditional height of a door. So, I actually have a handyman coming to trim those down, so soon they'll fit. But I'm really excited. They look great.

Instead of the folding white doors, they're like, these sleek black sliding doors. They have, like, frosted glass panels on them.

So, it really makes the room look a little bit more modern, and it also makes the room feel bigger, if that makes sense.

I guess just having the glass there kind of creates a sense that, like, not everything's closed off. So yeah, starting to look good.

James Baldwin (1:57)

Anyway, from Rob's bedroom to Giovanni's Room, today we are talking about one of the most famous LGBTQ+ writers: James Baldwin.

Now, I wasn't familiar with him until 2020 when I was participating in Dr. Eric Cervini's virtual pandemic book club. And one of the first books we covered was Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin.

And after that, I began to notice Baldwin's name popping up quite a bit whenever LGBTQ+ writers and historic figures came up.

And I had done some research and found that he's been a central voice in shaping both Black and queer culture conversations.

So really important that we cover his life and legacy today. We're going to get into it. But first, you know the drill. Tarot time.

Tarot (2:38)

So, the card we drew for this episode is The Emperor. This is a Major Arcana card, so it's indicating a significant life event. The Emperor card is full of masculine energy, which is very action-oriented.

You know, he's this very authoritative figure, and is sometimes referred to as a traditional father figure type in the tarot. But this card can either represent some authoritarian in our lives, or it can be us.

It's number four in the Major Arcana, and in numerology, four is tied to structure and stability.

And when we draw this card, it's inviting us to take action from a place of power instead of reacting from a place of fear.

The Emperor can literally be tied to leadership, but also can indicate that we're a protector or someone else's rock.

This card lets us know that we have the strength to stabilize any chaos by creating our own system of law and order.

And The Emperor is also a great source of knowledge that others may turn to for guidance and advice.

So, this card is just as much about creating order for ourselves as it is about creating a stable environment for those around us to learn and thrive.

James Baldwin’s Early Life (3:33)

And with that in mind, let's get into it. And first, I just want to give a quick disclaimer.

Some of the titles of work in this use outdated and not politically correct language, so I'm going to avoid those words as much as possible.

But when I'm referencing these works, I am going to read the verbatim title. So just a quick note up front.

Anyway, James Arthur Baldwin was born on August 2, 1924, in Harlem, New York, where he was raised by his mother, Emma Berdis Jones.

Now his mother had migrated from Maryland to flee racial segregation and discrimination in the South in 1903 during the Great Migration.

And she was 19 when she arrived in Harlem and conceived Baldwin out of wedlock and never revealed who his biological father was.

In 1927, his mother married David Baldwin, a Baptist preacher, and they later had eight children together.

So, Baldwin was the eldest of nine, and he grew up in poverty and was shaped by the difficult relationship with his stepfather.

From a young age, he found refuge in books and writing, and he was encouraged by teachers and by early exposure to literature at the public library in Harlem.

And this is how he developed an interest in reading and writing while navigating a strict and religious household.

He attended Public School 24 and later Frederick Douglass Junior High, where he edited the school newspaper and published his first essay.

In 1938, Baldwin entered DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx, where he worked on the school magazine and published poems and other pieces.

And during high school, he struggled with his sexual identity and temporarily turned to religion and became a Pentecostal youth preacher from ages 14 to 17.

And he would later say that this experience turned him into a writer because of the emotional complexity he encountered in the church.

After graduating high school in 1941, he worked a series of jobs in New Jersey and Harlem to support his family.

And while working these jobs, he encountered overt acts of racism, including discrimination and racial slurs, which inspired him to write about racial injustice.

During the 1940s, Baldwin lived in Greenwich Village, where he became part of a literary circle and established friendships with artists like painter Beauford Delaney and actor Marlon Brando.

And Baldwin wrote many literary reviews for The New Leader, and his 1947 review of Maxim Gorki's Best Short Stories was his first published piece in The Nation.

In 1948, his first essay, The Harlem Ghetto, was published in Commentary and explored anti-Semitism among Black Americans.

And it drew attention from other magazines, which led to more invitations and opportunities to publish and helped establish Baldwin as a serious young writer.

James Baldwin’s Move to Paris (5:51)

However, he was frustrated with the deep-rooted racism he experienced in the United States, so he moved to Paris at the age of 24 with $40 to his name.

And he felt that Paris would provide an environment where he could live and write more freely as both a Black man and a queer man.

And while Paris did provide somewhat of an escape, Baldwin's time spent there was not easy, since he was extremely poor and he usually stayed with various friends around the city and in various hotels.

And in 1949, he met Lucien Happersberger, a 17-year-old Swiss painter who had come to Paris in search of excitement.

In the years that followed, the two formed a close bond and eventually became partners, which greatly shaped Baldwin's creativity.

Now I couldn't find perfect details on this, but by 1951, it seemed that Lucien had entered a heterosexual relationship, but he and Baldwin remained friends for nearly 40 years after.

And while Lucien Heppersberger is the most well-known early relationship, Baldwin had other significant romantic relationships throughout his life, including connections in France and New York, although he was very private about his personal life, so there aren't many publicly known details.

Also, an interesting detail. In December 1949, Baldwin was arrested and jailed for receiving stolen goods after an American friend brought him bed sheets that the friend had taken from another Paris Hotel.

And a few days later, the courtroom laughed off the incident and dismissed the charges.

The following year, Baldwin wrote about this experience in the essay Equal in Paris, where he expressed surprise that he was no longer and this is a quote a "despised Black man," but simply an American who was no different from his white American friend who stole the sheet and was arrested with him.

Throughout his time in Paris, Baldwin published several other essays and critiques.

In 1953, his semi-autobiographical novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, was published, which tells the story of John Grimes, an intelligent teenager in 1930s Harlem, and his relationship with his family and his church.

It contained themes of religion, sexuality, and race, and it received critical acclaim. And today, Go Tell It on the Mountain is considered a literary classic, with it being required reading for many high schools.

In 1955, he published Notes of a Native Son, which was a non-fiction collection of 10 of Baldwin's essays, which focused on race, identity, and the Black experience in both America and Europe.

Giovanni’s Room (8:01)

And the following year, he published Giovanni's Room, which follows David, an American living in Paris who is navigating his feelings and frustrations with other men.

In particular, he meets Giovanni, an Italian, who works as a bartender at a gay bar, and the two men spend a large amount of time in his apartment. Hence the title.

And the story is narrated by David as he reflects on this relationship ahead of Giovanni's scheduled execution for committing murder.

Now, his American publisher, who had previously published Go Tell It on the Mountain, suggested that he burn the book because of its homosexual themes, which they believed would alienate him from his readership among Black people.

They even went so far as to say the book would ruin Baldwin's career.

And while the book was controversial for the time, the critiques weren't as harsh about the same sex relationship as anticipated.

And this is interesting, the murder in the book was actually inspired by a real-life event.

In 1943, Lucien Carr, a Columbia undergraduate student, murdered David Kammerer, an older gay man who had made sexual advances toward him.

The two men were walking near the banks of the Hudson River when Kammerer made a pass at Carr, leading Carr to stab him and dump his body in the river.

And shifting gears from that heaviness, a fun local tie-in.

In 1973, the gay bookstore, Giovanni's Room Bookstore, opened in Philadelphia's gayborhood, which was named after the novel. And it now operates today as Philly AIDS Thrift at Giovanni's Room.

James Baldwin & the Civil Rights Movement (9:22)

But back to the 1950s. Throughout Baldwin's writing, he regularly explored the intersection of being Black and queer, which reflected his own experiences navigating these identities in both the United States and Europe.

And while he remained in Paris, he still followed the Civil Rights Movement in the United States.

And some of the major events around this time included the US Supreme Court's order to desegregate schools in May 1954, Rosa Parks being arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat in December 1955, and Autherine Lucy attending the University of Alabama before being expelled when whites rioted in February 1956.

He returned to New York in the fall of 1957 and published his third novel, Another Country, in 1962.

And this followed the tragic downfall of fictional jazz drummer Rufus Scott, and after his suicide, it explores how grief, race, sexuality, and desire strain and reshape the interconnected relationships of his friends and lovers in New York City.

Now, this novel received mixed reviews, but it garnered a lot of attention. Another Country was actually designated obscene in New Orleans and banned due to including descriptions of LGBT love and sex.

And this drew the attention of FBI Director J Edgar Hoover, who you might remember as being a central figure of the Lavender Scare.

As FBI Director, he framed homosexuality as a national security risk and aggressively investigated and tracked suspected gay and lesbian federal employees.

Sounds eerily familiar, right? I guess history does repeat itself.

Anyway, throughout the 1960s, Baldwin emerged as a leading public intellectual and spoke out on civil rights, race relations, and social justice in the United States and abroad.

He even participated in debates, lectures, and public panels, and often engaged with civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and Medgar Evers.

In 1968, he published his fourth novel, Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone, which largely received negative reviews at the time of its publication.

Throughout the 1960s, Baldwin also published a number of essays that confronted racism, sexuality, religion, and American identity.

James Baldwin’s Later Life & Career (11:21)

In 1970, he settled in the south of France, where he'd lived for most of his later life.

In 1972, he published No Name in the Street, his fourth non-fiction book that explores his own experiences with major events in the late 60s, like McCarthyism and the assassinations of three of his personal friends: Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr.

In 1974 and 1979, he published If Beale Street Could Talk and Just Above My Head, respectively, which both stressed the importance of Black American families.

And If Beale Street Could Talk was actually adapted into a film in 2018 starring Kiki Lane, Regina King, and Coleman Domingo, among others.

In his later years, Baldwin continued to speak out against systemic racism, urban poverty, and social injustice, and often mentored younger Black and LGBTQ+ writers and activists.

Then, shifting to the 1980s, Baldwin published Jimmy's Blues, a volume of poetry in 1983, and The Evidence of Things Not Seen, another book-length essay in 1985, which reflected on race and was inspired by the Atlanta murders of 1979 through 1981.

In 1987, he published his final novel, Harlem Quartet, which follows the intertwined lives of four Black youths and decades later, one of them, as he tries to understand his past, family, faith, and the bonds that shaped their past.

James Baldwin’s Death & Legacy (12:36)

On December 1, 1987, Baldwin passed away at the age of 63 from stomach cancer and was buried at the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, near New York City.

And a few hours after his death, Harlem Quartet won the French American Friendship Prize.

At the time of his death, Baldwin was working on a memoir titled Remember This House, which focused on his recollections of personal interactions with civil rights leaders.

And this unfinished manuscript served as the basis for Raoul Peck's 2016 documentary film, I Am Not Your Negro.

And reflecting on his life, James Baldwin published nine novels, numerous essays, plays, and volumes of poetry, which explored the intersections of race, sexuality, and identity.

And today, he is remembered as a trailblazing writer, outspoken activist, and a pioneering voice for both Black and LGBTQ+ communities, whose work continues to inspire conversations about justice, equality, and authentic self-expression.

Episode Closing (13:28)

And connecting it back to the tarot. The Emperor, again, this card is full of masculine energy, which reminds us to take inspired action from a place of power.

The Emperor is a leader who uses his power and knowledge to create stability. And the people around The Emperor tend to look to him as a leader who provides comfort and guidance.

And I think you can see a lot of those leadership-type qualities through James Baldwin's life and career. He experienced discrimination firsthand as a Black queer man, and he took strategic and inspired action.

He moved to Paris to escape the deep-rooted racism in America, and while he was there, he used his personal power through writing to bring light to these issues.

And even when his publisher suggested he scrap Giovanni's Room, he abided by his own rules and went forward with the novel, and it ended up being one of the works he's best known for today.

He definitely showed his leadership ability working alongside civil rights leaders and became a mentor for younger Black and queer writers and activists.

And his legacy lives on today through his work and continues to empower and inspire younger generations who continue to push for equality across a spectrum of identities.

His life reminds us about the importance of living authentically and speaking out against injustice, even when it's difficult or scary.

And we all have our own personal power, whether it be writing or activism or community building, which we can use to honor our identities and make a difference for the communities we belong to.

So, I hope you enjoyed this episode and maybe inspired you to pick up one of James Baldwin's books. I definitely love Giovanni's Room and would recommend it.

And unfortunately, my high school was not one of the schools that had Go Tell It on the Mountain as one of their required readings.

So, while things are quiet with grad school, I think I may go and pick up a copy of that.

Connect with A Jaded Gay (15:01)

Anyway, thank you all for listening. If you have any questions or feedback, you can reach out to me rob@ajadedgay.com.

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Mmm-bye.

Outtake (16:29)

In 1973, the gay bookstore, Giovanni's Room Bookstore, opened in Philadelphia's gayborhood, which was named after the novel. And it now operates today. Whoa.